


Balance

by raktajinos



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Character Study, Community: onceuponaland, Dark Magic, Ficlet, Gen, Unbeta'd, disembodied voices, mild creepy imagery
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-12
Updated: 2014-02-12
Packaged: 2018-01-12 03:47:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 792
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1181510
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/raktajinos/pseuds/raktajinos
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Cora sets out to learn to control the portals, to learn to access the darkest forms of magic.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Balance

**Author's Note:**

> written for the Fifth Round Creation challenge at lj's onceuponaland. Due to quick turnaround, its unbeta'd.

Once she learned about the portals between worlds, it was only a matter of time before she was able to control them. She didn't want to be dependent on that ridiculous Hatter for anything; she didn't like being dependent to anyone, least of all when it came to magic. So she studied, travelled the realms, looking for answers, learning the darkest and most feared forms of magic she could get access to. Many were reluctant to talk about it, let alone teach her, but most people could be bribed with wealth and riches, or threatened if need be. She studied with some of the most truly terrifying creatures she'd ever had the misfortune to lay eyes upon. Rumpelstiltskin thought he was the darkest, the Dark One, holder of ultimate power. 

But he was wrong. So very wrong. 

And now she was more powerful than all of them. She sought out learning how to control the portals, but she gleaned so much more than that. She felt connected to them, she understood their movements, their moods, their desires. The portals were living things, a disembodied force of energy, swirling with magic. She learned their language, how to trace their voices through her own blood and through the elements; the balancing of earth, air, fire and water. Elemental magic was one of the first things an apprentice learned, and she'd cast it off as too simplistic; but learning to use all the elements in tandem, that was exquisite magic. It took more mental and physical control than she was used to using. She had to connect with every element, balancing their energies in her body like a juggler would with knives; never letting them touch or overlap, never letting the rhythm falter for fear of the entire connection snapping. 

It was an exercise in precision. Of patience. 

It took her a lot longer to master the skill than she was comfortable admitting and she'd angered the portals in her numerous failed attempts to gain access. But like everything else, she was successful soon enough, her mind breaking through to the other side and in that moment she understood what she'd been doing wrong all those attempts before. 

She could hear the beat of the portal energy in her body, hear them beckoning her to join them, become one of them. She was tempted, but never took them up on their offer, choosing to travel the portals and discover dozens of undiscovered worlds filled with wondrous things. 

Until one day she decided not to and she jumped blindly into the portal, no destination in mind, simply the wish to learn more, to know them. The voices she heard calling to her were louder here, no longer as if whispering in her ear, but now as if speaking directly into her mind. 

_"what do you seek?_ the voices asked.

She felt afraid. _laughter_

"Knowledge," she said back, her mouth forming the words but no sound coming out. She spoke with her mind. 

_"Is that all?" they asked, a devious tone in the sound telling her she could not trust them._

_"Power," she said with her mind, this time more firmly. She would not let fear control her. She wanted to know everything._

__

And excited. _purring_

 _"Excellent,"_ the voices purred in an animalistic cackle. 

She felt the tendrils of their existence wrap around her limbs, reaching through her, tapping into her magic, her mind. They sought a heart, she could feel their confusion and irritation at not being able to find one. And not for the first time she was happy she'd had the foresight to remove hers. She knew in that moment she would survive this, her own drastic measures saving her once more from a mystical creature; like many before them, they wanted...needed...craved the magic and power of a heart. 

A wry smile fell upon her lips as she took pleasure in not paying their price. She felt their wrath and a second before her body exploded with sensation, she heard felt their choice to punish her for her deception. She felt the creatures smile as her mind exploded, expanding with knowledge, a nausea building up from the seemingly endless stream of it pouring through her. It was overwhelming; learning and knowing and _feeling_ all this power in her mind and body.

How long she spent in their company, she didn't know; could have been days, hours or maybe even mere moments. Time passed differently, irrelevantly. But when she was finally released from their grasp, she fell upon the sand of a land she knew not of. On hands and knees, she felt her mind stretch out around her, feeling the grains of sand as easily as her fingertips did. This was power.


End file.
